--- title: "1. Voters’ general election preferences" description: "Currently, 41% of registered voters say they would vote for Hillary Clinton if the general election were held today, while 37% say they would vote for Donald Trump, 10% say they would vote for Gary Johnson and 4% say they would vote for Jill Stein. Differences in support across demographic groups are largely consistent with […]" date: "2016-08-18" authors: - name: "Pew Research Center" url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2016/08/18/1-voters-general-election-preferences/" categories: - "Donald Trump" - "Election 2016" - "Politics & Policy" - "U.S. Elections & Voters" --- # 1. Voters’ general election preferences [![](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/08/1_1.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2016/08/18/1-voters-general-election-preferences/1_1-4/) Currently, 41% of registered voters say they would vote for Hillary Clinton if the general election were held today, while 37% say they would vote for Donald Trump, 10% say they would vote for Gary Johnson and 4% say they would vote for Jill Stein. Differences in support across demographic groups are largely consistent with preferences at earlier points in this cycle. There continues to be a sizable gender gap in vote preferences: Women favor Clinton over Trump by 19 percentage points (49% to 30%), while men back Trump by a 12-point margin (45% to 33%). (For more on the gender gap, see [“A Closer Look at the Gender Gap in Presidential Voting”](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2016/07/28/a-closer-look-at-the-gender-gap-in-presidential-voting/)). Educational differences also are substantial, especially among white voters. Overall, voters with postgraduate degrees favor Clinton by a wide margin (59% vs. 21%), with 10% and 5% expressing support for Johnson and Stein, respectively. College graduates also favor Clinton (47% vs. 34%). Preferences are divided among those with some college experience or less: 41% back Trump, 36% favor Clinton (9% say Johnson and 5% Stein). White voters without a college degree support Trump by roughly two-to-one (51% vs. 26%). By a smaller margin, college-educated white voters support Clinton (47%) over Trump (33%). And divides across religious groups [continue to be wide](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2016/07/13/evangelicals-rally-to-trump-religious-nones-back-clinton/), as white evangelical Protestant voters overwhelmingly show support for Trump over Clinton in the four-way contest (63% vs. 17%). By contrast, religiously unaffiliated voters are more likely to rally around Clinton than Trump: 56% back her, compared with 19% who support Trump, 13% who prefer Johnson and 5% who would vote for Stein. ### Profiling the candidates' supporters [![](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/08/1_2a.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2016/08/18/1-voters-general-election-preferences/1_2a/) Gary Johnson is currently backed by 10% of all registered voters in a four-way race. When asked their preference in a two-way race, Johnson backers split evenly: 43% say they would support Clinton in a two-way contest, while 42% would favor Trump. Johnson’s supporters are younger on average than voters who back either Clinton or Trump. Nearly a third (32%) of Johnson’s supporters in the four-way contest are younger than 30. This is roughly double the share of Clinton (15%) or Trump supporters (12%) who are younger than 30. Only 29% of Johnson backers are 50 or older, compared with 50% of Clinton supporters and 62% of Trump voters. The racial and ethnic makeup of the candidates’ coalitions is also quite different. The overwhelming majority of Trump (87%) and Johnson supporters (79%) are white. By contrast, while a majority of Clinton backers are also white (58%), about a quarter of her supporters are black (24%) and one-in-ten (10%) are Hispanic. A majority of those who support Johnson are independents (62%) and they are divided roughly evenly between those who lean toward the Republican Party (28%) and the Democratic Party (24%), while 14% decline to lean toward either party. Just 7% of all registered voters – and just 3% each of Clinton and Trump supporters – are independents who decline to lean. ### More ‘negative voting’ than in ‘08 [![](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/08/1_3.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2016/08/18/1-voters-general-election-preferences/1_3-5/) Supporters of both candidates continue to voice attitudes of “negative voting” more now than in the past few presidential cycles. Those who choose Clinton or Trump in the four-way contest express mixed views as to whether their vote is more for their own candidate, or against the opposing candidate. Among Trump supporters, 44% say their choice is more a vote for Trump than a vote against Clinton, compared with 53% who say their vote is more against Clinton than for Trump. Those who support Clinton are slightly more likely to say their vote is more for the candidate (53%) than to say their vote is against Trump (46%). Eight years ago, far more supporters said their choice was more a vote for their candidate than said it was a vote against the opposing candidate. In August 2008, 59% of voters who favored John McCain thought of their choice as more for McCain, compared with 35% who said it was a vote against Barack Obama. And fully 68% of those who supported Obama said their vote was more for Obama, more than twice as many as said their choice was more a vote against McCain (25%). --- **Next:** [2. Perceptions of the presidential candidates](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2016/08/18/2-perceptions-of-the-presidential-candidates.md)